I have already told a couple of stories from our second day because it was VERY long! Don’t get me wrong! We had a great day, but it felt like 2 days in one and a lot happened! We had a few issues we had to deal with that seemed to make it stretch out even more! Anyway, here is our long day!
Saturday we were up early due to our nature encounter with the aggressive deer and the sculling team on the river, so we hit the river a little after 8 am. As we left Williams Island, we passed Baylor School which is incredible, then we came across more of those buzzards! This time it was more like a roost with buzzards on the ground and on the trees above us! It was a little eerie, so we moved on rapidly! We paddled and paddled! Now, the first issue we had early that day was the lack of ICE! I love my ice and I have gotten Phyllis hooked on it too! Well, we were down to our last cup of ice! This wasn’t life or death or anything because we had plenty of water and the rest of our food did not need ice, but drinking warm water or warm diet coke is just a hardship I cannot tolerate even in the wilderness! If we didn’t find ice before the end of the day, I might go into withdrawals! BUT, we had enough for the day so I did not panic!
The GORGE was amazing and awe inspiring! We stopped at a couple of boat ramps, but no ice! We did manage to dump our trash at The Raccoon Mountain boat ramp, but no ice! While we were at the Raccoon Mountain ramp a HUGE barge came by! (See my video posted earlier!) We watched as all the other boats on the water moved out of its way! We then boarded our boat and headed down river!
Another issue on this day was the amount of boat traffic on the river! Power boats were everywhere and as I said earlier, they are not a canoe’s friend! They make the ride more fun, but the paddling MUCH harder! From my research, I figured the river got much narrower, but even the area called the Narrows, was 10 times wider than other rivers we have paddled! In most places the river was 20 or more times wider which makes for much rougher water! Did I mention, the Tennessee is HUGE! On we paddled!
We had another major issue and that was that I had no idea where we were going to camp that night! I had a few options but all were further down the river than I wanted to paddle in one day so my hope was that we would find something sooner! Now at this point I heard my dad’s voice say, but what if you don’t? Of course, my voice answered, sure I will! On we paddled! Amazing scenery, amazing animals, cool boats, and a LOT of water! On we paddled! We stopped on a small beach area and had lunch! The scent of a dead fish nearby added ambiance, but at least the buzzards didn’t show up! After lunch, I took a swim to cool off and then on we paddled!
And on! And on! AND ON! By 6 o’clock, I was getting a little nervous, but I didn’t show it! Phyllis was showing it a little! I was however exhausted! I took a break for a snack and had Phyllis paddle us on! A pontoon boat pulled up beside us and an older man said, why is she doing all the paddling!? Now, I had paddled 90% of the way, but on this one break it looked like Phyllis was the only one paddling! She ate it up and paddled even harder! As the boat moved away, we were all laughing, but I picked up my paddle again! (Luckily, the next day we passed a dock and the man’s grandson was standing there and said I saw y’all yesterday! I told him to be sure to tell his grandfather who was doing all the paddling!) And on we went!
Nearing 7 o’clock, we rounded a bend and on the far side of the river Phyllis said she saw what she thought was a store!!!!! As we got closer, we also saw an open sign flashing! THEN, all of the sudden we were close enough to see the word ICE!!!!!! On the door of the store! It was a long way across the river and we were both exhausted, but for ICE we paddled faster than we had all day!!! We docked at the Sullivan’s landing boat ramp (This should be highlighted on every Blueway map instead of in the small print I had missed!) I waited with the boat while Phyllis went to buy the ice, but it was cash only and I had the cash, so we had to swap places. With the promise of ice for my diet coke, I had a new burst of energy! We bought 3 glorious bags of ice and some cold diet cokes! Phyllis got her a pickle which I could definitely live without! We still had to find a campsite, but with ice in my system, I felt like Popeye on spinach-LET”S PADDLE!!
However, Phyllis had asked the man about camping and he said the guy right across the river rented space around the house he was building to paddlers! I hesitated in case he might be a crazed killer, but at this point we would deal with that if it came up! SO, we paddle again! Straight across the river! After we landed and woke the man up, he said we could camp behind the house for 20 bucks! When I hesitated because I wanted to find somewhere free, the look Phyllis gave me nearly knocked me out of the boat, so I agreed! I thought we were going to have to unload and carry everything around the house, but then our good fortune got even better! He said I could go back down about 100 yards and paddle into a cove we had missed when crossing over to the store and that would bring me right to the camping area he said we could use! Phyllis walked around the house while I paddled some more!
As I came into the cove I saw Phyllis waving and it was a glorious sight! We pulled the boat within 3 feet of where we were going to camp! The place was beautiful! We had an amazing view, easy set up and no crazed dear! After setting up camp and cooking dinner, we enjoyed a campfire and then finally went to bed earlier than I have gone to bed since I was a kid! (I did have my play time with the Snake, BOB, at this point, but that is another story! We slept like babies without even putting the rainfly on the tent! We could watch the stars in the incredible sky! Our longest day finally came to a glorious end!
